Your Name Was NOT Changed at Ellis Island

Your family name was NOT changed at Ellis Island. That story almost everyone repeats is a myth.

Millions of Americans believe an overworked, impatient official took one look at their immigrant ancestor, shrugged at a name he could not pronounce, and scribbled down something shorter and more American.

But Ellis Island inspectors never wrote down names at all. They worked from ship manifests, the passenger lists filled out back in Europe before the voyage even began. The names already existed on paper.

Those manifests were federal documents. Altering them was illegal, and interpreters stood ready to read them correctly. An inspector inventing names would have risked his job.

Names really did change, but later, chosen by the immigrants themselves as they tried to fit in. The Ellis Island version only took hold in the 1970s, long after the island had closed.

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